New Delhi, February 15
Aftab Ansari, one of the prime suspects behind the Kolkata American Centre attack, today confessed he had given money to senior Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) leader Sheikh Omar Saeed on several occasions and that the arms consignment seized by the CBI last year was funded by him. Highly-placed CBI sources said Ansari had confessed that he had given money to Sheikh, a senior JeM leader arrested by the Pakistani police, on several occasions.

These confessions came a day before his being taken to Radhanpur in Gujarat where the arms seizure case had been registered.

Ansari had confessed to the CBI that he had masterminded the kidnapping of Kolkata shoe baron Parthapratim Roy Burman and
extracted a ransom of Rs 3.75 crore to Dubai through hawala channel.

Out of this amount, the sources said Omar Sheikh had sent $ 100,000 through telegraphic transfer to Mohammed Atta, leader of the hijackers who rammed planes into the WTC in New York and Pentagon in Washington on September 11. However, Ansari expressed his ignorance that the same money had been sent by Sheikh to Atta.

Ansari also admitted that the arms consignment seized by the CBI in Pattan district of North Gujarat was funded by him and the entire consignment was meant for his gang members in india to carry out acts of kidnapping and other organised crimes.